The growing demand for the Model Y is forcing Tesla to expand its workforce in Grünheide

Tesla plans to expand its workforce at the Berlin Gigafactory, located in the German town of Grünheide, with a thousand new employees to be hired in the coming months. This decision responds to the surge in demand for the Model Y in Europe, which is produced precisely at this plant to supply the entire continent.

This workforce expansion is now official, as the company itself has confirmed it in response to inquiries from several German media outlets. Once the process, which will begin shortly, is complete, the site will employ around 11,700 workers. A little over two years ago, the workforce exceeded 12,400 people. However, in early January, an internal document showed only 10,703 employees, a difference that Tesla attributed to the usual fluctuations in temporary staff at a facility of this size. The company has always denied significant cuts to its permanent workforce, and this hiring now reinforces that position.

According to Tesla’s statement, the thousand new hires will be completed by the end of June, with the aim of raising weekly production by around 20 percent from the third quarter. The first new hires are scheduled for May and are a direct consequence, according to a Tesla spokesperson, of the rise in demand for the Model Y in Europe.

Tesla is gaining momentum in Europe

Recent data supports this claim. March 2026 was a strong month for Tesla in Germany, and at the European level registrations have improved markedly after an irregular 2025, according to figures from the ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. The strong surge in demand for the Model Y is mainly attributed to the launch last autumn of the more affordable standard version of this electric SUV.

Beyond these thousand new hires, Tesla also plans to convert around 500 temporary contracts into permanent ones over the course of the year. But that is not all, as the company has in parallel also begun recruiting several hundred workers for battery cell production at its German plant from the first half of 2027.

Finally, it should be noted that although some reports claimed that just under 150,000 vehicles rolled off the Berlin Gigafactory assembly line throughout 2025, this has been denied by the plant’s director, André Thierig, who asserts that more than 200,000 units were actually produced. This latter figure appears reliable because it has also been backed by the IG Metall union.

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CrossoverTesla Model Y4 versions · from 39,990 €